''2004: The Stupid Version'' is a satirical documentary written by

Armando Iannucci Armando Giovanni Iannucci (; born 28 November 1963) is a Scottish satirist, writer, director, producer, performer, and panellist. Born in Glasgow to Italian parents, Iannucci studied at the University of Glasgow followed by the University of ...

, broadcast in two parts on BBC Three on

New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve, also known as Old Year's Day or Saint Sylvester's Day in many countries, is the evening or the entire day of the last day of the year, on 31 December. The last day of the year is commonly referred to ...

2004. The one-off programme is a parody of review programmes, which are typically broadcast at New Year. It features edited footage from news and television series, as well as satires on the politics and

fad A fad or trend is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short period. Fads are objects or behaviors that achieve short- ...

s of a year in which "only Andrew Marr kept his dignity". The documentary was shown again on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

on 29 January 2005, but has not been repeated since or released on DVD, although clips are available on the internet. Iannucci's other series '' Time Trumpet'' (2006) follows a similar format to ''The Stupid Version'', reviewing events satirically from a future perspective.

Format

Iannucci himself narrated the content, but only appears on screen once to assess the aftermath of ''The Room Show'', a spoof of the reality television shows prevalent at the time, in which Ian McCaskill,

Eddie 'the Eagle' Edwards Michael David Edwards (born 5 December 1963), better known as Eddie the Eagle, is an English ski-jumper and Olympian who in 1988 became the first competitor since 1928 to Great Britain at the Olympics, represent Great Britain in ski jumping at ...

and a number of other minor celebrities were locked in an (unfilmed) container for ten hours. In particular, the show focuses on stories that made the headlines from 2004, for example the US Presidential Election, featuring edited footage showing

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

singing “

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

” during a presidential head to head, and an montage of election speeches emphasising the buzz words used by Bush's campaign. In addition, the programme satirised politics in the United Kingdom, for example, edits of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown apparently contradicting one another, the favourite swear words of politicians in the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

, and the controversial documentary by ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

'', "Where the Tits were Saddam's WMD?” The programme also features a series of banal interviews interspersed with the clips, with the interviewees either misunderstanding or misinterpreting their content; "The Olympics – what was all ''that'' about?” In reality, these were actors Richard Ayoade,

Matthew Holness Matthew James Holness (born 1975) is an English comedian, writer, director, and actor. He is best known for creating and playing the fictional horror author Garth Marenghi. Early life and education Born in Whitstable, Kent, Holness became a f ...

, Adam Buxton and Stewart Lee. Television programmes by the BBC which were spoofed included ''Johnny & Denise: Passport to Paradise'', '' Hard Spell'', ''

The Weakest Link ''Weakest Link'' (also known as ''The Weakest Link'') is a television game show which The Weakest Link (British game show), first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and originally ended on 31 March 2012 when its host ...

'' and

Alan Titchmarsh Alan Fred Titchmarsh HonFSE (born 2 May 1949) is an English gardener, broadcaster, TV presenter, poet, and novelist. After working as a professional gardener and a gardening journalist, he established himself as a media personality through a ...

's ''British Isles: A Natural History''. Other scenes included a world where every object was in the style of an

iPod The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...

, a dubbed News 24 interview with the editor of

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera ( ar, الجزيرة, translit-std=DIN, translit=al-jazīrah, , "The Island") is a state-owned Arabic-language international radio and TV broadcaster of Qatar. It is based in Doha and operated by the media conglomerate Al Jazeera ...

and a parody of the song by The Streets, “ Dry Your Eyes” (featuring Buxton as the protagonist).

References

External links

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{{Armando Iannucci BBC television comedy 2000s British satirical television series English-language television shows